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Palo Alto approves staff cuts, fee hikes at animal shelter

Palo Alto's animal shelter may have been saved from the chopping block last month, but the city's cash-strapped animal-services operation will soon see significant changes, including higher fees and fewer staff members, under a proposal the City Council approved Monday night.

Posted by daniel
a resident of Embarcadero Oaks/Leland
on Jul 25, 2012 at 7:14 am

In the long run outsourcing is always much more expensive and less productive. The US military has been outsourcing many of its functions to private contractors with an obscene level of waste, corruption and overcharging. One would think that experience would have taught us something.

Can anyone explain to me how the city council in the same evening can (1) say that the city's too poor to find $470,000 for the Animal Services (the fees that Mountain View used to pay) AND
(2) agree to spend over $4.3 MILLION dollars to reinvent the golf course?

WHAT a skewed sense of priorities!!

WHY can't some of the EXCESSIVE sum of money allocated to the golf course project be used instead for the Animal Services??

Daniel you're comparing two different "businesses". An animal shelter is not the military. Can you cite a source that says the possible out sourcing would be more expensive? Or is it merely an opinion?

As an aside, I'll bet there are fewer customers for the golf course than for an animal shelter.

the shelter manager will do everything to keep the two position going. The shelter manager doesn't want to help the city help them. Lay off the two employees as soon as possible, so the city would start saving some money and be happy about it. Because we all know that the city just want money.

Posted by Nike
a resident of Gunn High School
on Jul 29, 2012 at 7:43 am

I saw and spoke with an animal control officer last month and the officer was responding to emergency call. It was late at night and the call was for an almost dead rat. The officer told me that sometimes the calls they get are for rats, mices and other wild animals. Now the city is broke right, who is paying for the gas and when the animal control vehicle maintenance! Pay employees over- time to save an almost dead RAT, come on the more i learn about PAAS i really want to see it getting close down.

Posted by lacye
a resident of Gunn High School
on Jul 29, 2012 at 7:52 am

Well, the city doesn't care and PAAS wants to be different from other animal shelters. It sucks! I agree to pay my tax to help an injured dogs or cats, but for an almost dead rat. It is not right. I don't see any reason to pay an Animal Control Officer over-time to save an almost dead rat.

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